In light of calls for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s resignation following a leaked Signal chat that revealed details about a military operation in Yemen, President Donald Trump expressed his support for Hegseth on Wednesday.
After Hegseth inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, in a Signal chat where he shared information about the strike, the president addressed the ensuing controversy.
Following demands from several Congressional Democrats for Hegseth’s resignation, reporters inquired whether Trump believed Hegseth should consider stepping down. Trump responded, asserting, ‘He has nothing to do with this; Hegseth is doing a fantastic job.
How is Hegseth involved in this?’ The president also acknowledged to DailyMail.com that Mike Waltz, his national security advisor, took responsibility for Goldberg’s unintended inclusion in the chat. ‘Mike Waltz, I suppose he claimed responsibility.
Nobody else had anything to do with it,’ Trump stated when asked about the investigation. He added, ‘I guess, I don’t know, I was told it was Mike.’ Trump further minimized the significance of the controversy regarding Hegseth’s dissemination of classified information that could have endangered the operation, instead emphasizing the success of the mission.
Trump asserted that the operation was remarkably successful that evening, resulting in no adverse consequences. He raised concerns about the functionality of the Signal app and questioned the motives behind the Democrats’ calls for Hegseth’s resignation.
He remarked, ‘You want to know if Signal is operational. Frankly, I am uncertain about its effectiveness; it may indeed be flawed.’ Despite its reputation as an insecure platform for classified communications, the encrypted application, which deletes messages post-delivery, is commonly utilized for discussions in Washington, DC. Trump emphasized, ‘We all use Signal, but we must ascertain its operational status.’
Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego from Arizona demanded Hegseth’s resignation for revealing details about the operation on the app. Kelly expressed on X that the Signal incident stemmed from having the most incompetent Secretary of Defense in history.
‘We are fortunate that no service members were harmed, but Secretary Hegseth must resign for the good of our nation and military,’ he added. Gallego also posted on social media, warning that this could have endangered the lives of our servicemen and women!
In a recent statement, Hegseth criticized The Atlantic for inaccurately portraying his messages as ‘war plans’ and asserted that he did not share any classified information during the discussion. The alleged ‘war plans’ released by The Atlantic lack specific details such as names, targets, locations, units, paths, references, and techniques.
He emphasized, ‘There is no classified information either; those so-called war plans are utterly worthless.’ On March 15, Hegseth sent a ‘Team Update’ via the Signal app to senior officials in the Trump administration, informing them of the timing and weaponry for the upcoming military strikes.
He indicated, ‘This is when the first bombs will definitely drop,’ disclosing the schedule for operations involving sea-launched Tomahawk missiles and F-18 aircraft. Nevertheless, Hegseth insisted that he was simply providing a ‘team update’ and had not revealed any ‘war plans.’
He stated, ‘My role is to deliver real-time updates to the team. Everyone receives general updates promptly; that is what I did.’ Senator Marco Rubio also commented on the matter on Wednesday, acknowledging, ‘Clearly, there was a mistake—a significant one—and a journalist was included.’
He expressed no animosity towards reporters but noted, ‘They should not be part of that discussion.’ Rubio referred to the Pentagon’s assertion that the text exchange contained no classified information, affirming, ‘The operation and the safety of our servicemen were never compromised by any of the information shared.’
